SOCHI - Lop-sided games in the women’s Olympic hockey tournament drive just about everybody nuts.

Canada and the U.S.A. are head-and-shoulders the best teams in the world and outscored the opposition 62-3 in the preliminary round of the Vancouver Olympics four years ago.

That led to women’s hockey being put on warning by the International Olympic Committee: make the game more competitive or get lost.

The lop-sided scores give ammunition to those who think women’s hockey should be out and it puts everybody involved on the defensive.

So, organizers have addressed the problem, at least optically, for these Olympic Games.

The top four countries by world ranking — Canada, U.S.A., Finland and Switzerland have been put together in Group A for preliminary-round play and won’t face the weaker teams in Group B from Sweden, Russia, Germany and Japan.